Data on cities that are benchmarked with the sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems index and related cross-sectoral scenario

Abstract

The data set of this article is related to an original research article entitled “Benchmarking the sustainability of urban energy, water and environment systems and envisioning a cross-sectoral scenario for the future” Kılkış, 2019. The data article provides data compilations in the context of benchmarking studies based on the composite indicator of the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems City Index. Data tables for the seven dimensions of the index are provided for 35 main indicators and related sub-indicators for the newly benchmarked cities while those for other cities are monitored. In addition to periodic updates in the common data sources, some cities released updated reports for the Sustainable Energy and/or Climate Action Plans and/or relevant local statistics since the initial benchmarking. Normalized and aggregated values per dimension of the index for 120 cities are provided as an appendix for groups of 30 cities that are characterized as the pioneering, transitioning, solution-seeking, and challenged cities of the sample. The data compilation for the sources of residual energy from the industry, thermal power generation, the wastewater sector and urban biowaste are further provided for 60 cities as the basis of a scenario to encourage the integration of cross-sectoral measures in urban systems to improve benchmarked performances. The data that is contained in this data article thus enables the original application of the index to 120 cities and the analysis of a scenario in which cities reduce primary energy spending and carbon dioxide emissions.

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis Theory and Tools for the SDEWES Index

“…The alternatives correspond to cities, and their number n varies depending on the sample. The current version of the index [8] considers a sample of n = 120 cities, that integrates the samples reported on in detail in the literature [9][10][11][12][13][14]. For each x∈ [1,7] and y∈ [1,5] denote by Ex,y(Cj) the evaluation of city Cj according to the y th criterion of dimension Dx.…”

“…A single step of winsorization consists in replacing all the occurrences of the highest evaluation value by the second-highest one, this step is iterated until skewness and kurtosis fall below 2 and 3.5, respectively, or until a maximum of 5% of the values have been modified. A complete list of the indicators that required winsorization for the current 120-city sample is provided in Kılkış [14]. In the normalization step the evaluations are mapped onto the interval [0, 10], for maximization criteria, the normalized value is defined as:…”

“…The motivations for this choice should be clear in light of the above discussion, and include the availability of data, the wide scientific literature on the subject and, last but not least, the promising potential of the SDEWES Index as a decision supporting tool. In particular, the analyses conducted in the present work were made possible by the availability of the underlying data both at the dimension level [8] and (almost completely) at the indicator level [9][10][11][12][13][14]. For other indexes, data are not always made available, e.g., the Sustainable Cities Index [3] only provides the final scores and a graphical representation of normalized data.…”

“…In Kılkış [13], a further sample of 26 world cities is evaluated, and a "normative scenario" (see discussion below) for Rio de Janeiro is analysed. The data for another sample of 18 world cities are compiled in Kılkış [14]. An in-depth discussion of the results (including, but not limited to, sensitivity and scenario analysis, and city pairing) for the overall integrated sample of 120 cities addressed so far can be found in Kılkış [5], an overview is given in Kılkış [15].…”

Global Covenant of Mayors, a dataset of GHG emissions for 6,200 cities in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean

“…recently as in 2019, the first datasets were published in academic literature, aiming to fill regional gaps (Adami et al, 2020;Kilkis, 2019;Palermo et al, 2020).…”